Paul Pogba’s sublime rainbow heel flick typified his ineffective genius

Sometimes people like to say they don’t care about flashy tricks. They are lying. Everyone likes flashy tricks.

How can you not love something that makes you audibly gasp, that encapsulates the child-like enthusiasm that football lets us express on a weekly basis?

Chief amongst football’s great entertainers is Paul Labile Pogba, whose unique insistence on playing football like it’s a videogame is both the stuff of genius and frustration.

Since returning from injury he has wowed Manchester United fans once again and reminded them what they had missed – and will possibly miss entirely next season.

His tormenting of Adam Forshaw in Sunday’s derby against Leeds at Elland Road was further evidence of that – and his x-rated, backheel rainbow flick was the perfect summation of Pogba’s frustrating, frustrated genius.

Pogba had already created one gilt-edge chance, turning Forshaw inside out on the left of the pitch only for Cristiano Ronaldo to miss from point-blank range.

It was dazzling, but shortly after Pogba offered up another, even more magisterial move to the dribbling Gods.

Oh Pogba you beauty pic.twitter.com/KaEACwKoQs

— ً#R7 (@PP6AM9) February 20, 2022

Forshaw was once again the sacrificial lamb when Pogba, receiving the ball from a throw-in, backheel-flicked the ball over and around the Leeds midfielder with divine providence.

With his first touch, he met the ball with a combination of the back of his ankle and the side of his foot, lifting it over himself and Forshaw.

There the ball floated, hanging momentarily above the Frenchman’s head like a footballing halo.

Next, thanks to the eyes on the back of his head, Pogba knew Forshaw was breathing down his neck and the 28-year-old galloped around the Leeds man, now